Computer Insurance: Home Business

While it is true that most homeowner’s insurance policies cover all your personal belongings, no matter where they are in the world, most policies exclude certain items. The insurance industry believes that everything should be insured under the correct type of policy. For this reason, your car and your home each need their own insurance policy.

Each is excluded under the other policy. In the same way, the insurance industry expects business computers and other business equipment to be insured on a business insurance policy. Often, business computers and other business equipment are excluded from coverage under the homeowner’s insurance policy. If business equipment is excluded, then everything you have done in order to get a tax benefit from owning the computer for business use works against your being able to collect for it on your homeowner’s insurance.

So how can you tell if your business computer or other business equipment is excluded from coverage on your homeowner’s insurance policy? Read your homeowner’s insurance policy carefully. Especially read the exclusions under your policy’s section on your covered property. Look for the terms “business,” “business equipment,” “computers,” and other related terms. It is not possible to list here the coverages under every company’s insurance policies. Each company writes a slightly different policy, and each state has its own regulations.

If you don’t feel able to determine for yourself if your homeowner’s insurance policy excludes coverage for business computers and other business equipment, then call your insurance company’s claim phone line. It may be easier for you to call your insurance agent, but agents don’t handle insurance claims. Agents don’t readily know the answers to coverage questions. Agents often call the insurance company’s claim line themselves, to get answers to coverage questions. You can find your insurance company’s claim phone line on your insurance bill. Ask to speak to a homeowner’s property adjuster.

If coverage is excluded, you can remedy the problem if you find it before you have a claim. You have several options. You can get business insurance. You can get a floater to cover specific items on your homeowner’s insurance. You can decide to absorb the risk of losing your business computer, and have a savings account to use to repair or replace your business computer if needed.